Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, former Black Panther, We Need Help as Flood Waters Rise

Urgent Breaking News, Another New Orleans on thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Horizon?
Talk Nation Radio interview with former Black Panhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifther and Anarchist Activist Lorenzo Komboa Ervin calls out for help to evacuate as floodwater rises.

As of Monday morning May 2nd, both Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin and Jonina Ervin safe at a community shelter. Thanks to all those who expressed concern and helped to get this story out.

UPDATES for transport, evacuation and shelter in Shelby County Tennessee, by FEMA: 1-901-515-2525, Desoto County, 1-901-476-0222. For Tunica County, Mississippi, 1-622-363-4012.

The Mississippi is going to record flood stage, it's going to 50 feet, some 25 feet above flood stage. Americans cry out for help as they don't know where to find help evacuating to shelter.

Shelby Co. residents advised to take flood precautions

Rain forces evacuations in Tennessee. "They don't seem to have it together here at all just like they didn't in New Orleans, so we're asking anyone who has the resources to help us get out of here." -- Mr. Ervin is in White Haven, "This area is on the border with Mississippi. We're only about a mile away from the Mississippi border, and its South West, so if you were the of South Haven or Corn Lake, any of those areas around there, you would be real close to where we are and would be in a position to help us out a great deal. --Ten miles from down town, but we couldn't make it there, that's where the flooding is coming from".


TRT: 12:47
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
1:00 a.m. EDT May 1, 2011 Another New Orleans in Mississhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifppi as flood waters rise?

Download at Pacifica's Audioport here Or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

Quote from interview: 'The Mississippi is going to 50 feet. Our area is predicted to be one of those areas that are going to be hit. So we are trying to get information from the county authorities who are not telling us anything. We can't get firm information about the danger that's involved here so that we can get out of harms way so we are trying to make some sort of an appeal to get out of this area.

We need transportation badly.Our car is only good enough for traveling around the city its not in that great a shape. We need someone to pick us up and get us out of here. We are in Memphis on the border with Mississippi, we need help, and we are asking people if you know people in the Memphis area or around here that are evacuating or are willing to evacuate us to please contact us. I can give our phone number, 901 907-0290, email is joninaervin@comcast.net. This storm is supposed to start in a few hours we are told. And we have no confidence in the local government, they don't seem to have it together here at all just like they didn't in New Orleans. And we are asking for help, so anyone who is already evacuating and who has the resources to help us get out of here, such as some of my political comrades in the anarchist movement, I'm very much appreciative of any help we can get. But we have to get out of here so I appreciate any help we can get'.

Copy: This is Dori Smith of Talk Nation Radio. We have received an urgent plea for help on our facebook page from residents of Tennessee in danger from raging flood waters.

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency has released emergency procedures for residents of Tennessee who could be affected by flooding. Yet for most people in the South, there is no clear information as to how they can get help if they have no transportation. No word yet on shelters either, according to activist and former Black Panther Lorenzo Komboa Ervin.

Lorenzo Komboa Ervin is located in Tennessee, where he is now openly calling on the general public to help him. He says they are getting word that they should be considering evacuation but cannot get any information on any help that is available to them.

Again a growing number of residents of Tennessee are being told to consider evacuation. In Dyer County for example, Emergency Management Director James Medling said people west of the airstrip in Finley should consider evacuating the area. More warnings are expected through the night.

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Mother's Day in Japan, a poem

Mother's Day in Japan
April 30, 2011, Dori Smith

Did you hold her hand when the world was cracking and shifting beneath her feet?
When silence came and you thought it was over, did the scream of a siren make her run to you?

Caught up in the energy and power of a whole people fleeing a giant wave, did you reach down to help another mother and infant climb the mountain of stairs to higher ground and safety?

Later, as you steeled your nerves, and when it seemed as if earth and sea had done all they could to you,
did you hear the explosion, see the smoke, cover your mouth and rush your baby to shelter?

Fukushima Daiichi had turned the air into an enemy too,

So the children at the shelter begin weeping and forming a chorus of questions, "What will we do? How will we live, Who will help us, can we see our grandmother again? Where is Daddy? Have we no more food? Have we no more water? Can we ever go back to school?"

It is a powerful distraction, but you draw strength from it, until suddenly the fire department is sending a rescue crew in to try to cool Fukushima, and your husband tells you that he too, "Must go to the ruptured plant to save both of you and Japan,"

Now you cannot stop the tears,

After a series of sleepless nights you allow your daughter's needs to slowly overpower you, and you give her a weakening smile, as the waiting takes on rhythms, and you become a widening family, all trying to explain the strange news, that, "no, you can never go home because of radiation", and no, you cannot "see it" or "taste it" but it is there and it could hurt you",

On April 7th 2011 as you are standing in line for food a strange feeling comes over you and suddenly you know it is AFTERSHOCK, EARTHQUAKE, ANOTHER TSUNAMI WARNING, another scream, another moment of earth threatening gut wrenching terror,

But you both survive,

Exhausted into silence now you absent-mindedly roll the soft baby hair on your daughter's lovely head between your fingers, You gaze at the evening news, take in the information but do not really hear it,

"There is radiation on the farmland, and poison in the spinach and fish",

May 8, 2011, you are still waiting for news of what will happen, but happiness, a taste of joy, as the government says, "You can bring your daughter to the park again"... And you take her by the hand and run to the door, as she is laughing, and you are ignoring the rest of the news report,

Upon arriving at the beautiful park, your familiar friend, you see the sign, "Radiation level is 3.8 microsieverts per hour, all children are restricted to one hour of exposure per day,"

And you flee with her once again in terror,

Back inside again at the shelter now you shudder with fear as the pain and horror in your mind is finally unleashed, and helplessness catches up to you, and you let out a long fracturing yell,

Now another mother clutches your hand to comfort you, and another one comforts her, and so the chain of exhausted Mother’s join breaths and time hearts, as one.

See: Fukushima restricts park use

"Fukushima Prefecture is restricting the use of 5 of its public parks due to high levels of radiation, causing concerns among nearby residents and park visitors. -- The prefecture announced on Monday that it would limit the use of the parks to one hour a day, as radiation readings at the 5 facilities were at or above the safety limit set for outdoor activities in schools.--The safety limit set by the central government last week is 3.8 microsieverts per hour.
In Fukushima city, officials put up notices warning park users about the one-hour restriction at parks subject to the measure. They also covered children's sandboxes with plastic sheeting to prevent the spread of dust.

The prefectural government is urging visitors to prevent their children from putting sand or dirt in their mouths and to wash their hands and gargle after visiting the parks. A mother of a 4-year-old said that since small children love to play outdoors, she's worried about the affects of radiation on her daughter. Monday, April 25, 2011 15:16 +0900 (JST)"

Connecticut Tries to Raise Taxes on Millstone Nuclear, Environmentalists Speak Out against Aging Nuke Plant

Talk Nation Radio for April 28, 2011
Connecticut Tries to Raise Taxes on Millstone Nuchttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflear

Judi Friedman of PACE, People's Action for Clean Energy
and Nancy Burton of Connecticut Coalition for Clean Energy



TRT: 29:18
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

The nuclear industry holds a lot of power, but state legislators in Connecticut think a tax on nuclear power can be part of a push for lower energy rates and more green forms of energy. That was the idea when legislators asked for an additional 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, about 330 million from Millstone nuclear power. But Millstone (Dominion Resources Inc.) went on the offensive with paid ads, robo calls, and radio spots on even NPR. The NPR "underwriting" ads suggest that Millstone has been providing 1100 jobs while providing "emission free" energy to Connecticut. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. April, in fact, marks a month when Millstone has a planned release of radioactive material which will be the highest level release for the year.
Millstone has tried everything to fight the tax increase. They threatened to close the plant, charge ratepayers more, and even lay off workers so that the plant would be operating with fewer staff during shut down.
Despite the events at Fukushima nuclear plant, all of the safety issues that have been associated with Millstone for decades, were ignored by the media. They have helped Millstone, and operator Dominion Resources, frame the debate as just another tax increase on "the public".
In fact, Connecticut has a deeply problematic regulatory system on taxation for energy, and regardless of the economic climate for residents of the state, they are forced to accept high rates. Millstone argues this is due to taxes, in fact, its due to the law that forces the state to price all energy based on what the least cost effective provider is paying for production. They add ten percent to that and apply it across the board. Thus, Millstone charges the same rate that natural gas charges, and another loophole allows the nuclear company to pass along any tax increases to consumers.

ACCIDENTS: A history of terrifying plant failures leave Millstone's Plant 1 in shut down. Their spokesperson tries to claim this is due to the state's decision that it was not "cost effective" but residents remember the days after the crisis at the plant that left everyone wondering who would come in and at least maintain it in permanent shut down..Enter Dominion, though high costs of oil and other forms of energy have given them a golden opportunity to pull in soaring profits.

There have been multiple accidents at the Millstone Nuclear Power plants in Waterford Connecticut over years of operation since the 1970s when the plants were built. These include several hydrogen explosions at Plant 1, which is very similar to the plant in Fukushima that exploded after an earthquake. If anything Millstone's site is more dangerous since the fuel rods are stored directly above the reactor core. Given what is happening in Japan we can see why this was a terrible idea on GE's part when they built the system.

UPDATE: Under pressure due to the widespread media campaign, the Governor offered a "compromise" that would essentially return the problem to the table for the next legislature to deal with. He would have reduced the tax way down to a fraction of a cent per kilowatt hour, but the authors of 1176 stepped in with last minute amendments to correct the situation. Sen. Fonfara and Rep, Nardello begin another courageous challenge to tax Millstone, and free customers of a surcharge imposed on them by the industry. The results may come through in a matter of days.

GUESTS: Judi Friedman of PACE, has long been an opponent of nuclear power, and she is in favor of increased taxes for Millstone. At the web page, www.pace-cleanenergy.org are the words: Remember Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Japan.

For years Judi Friedman has been conducting workshops at the homes and businesses that have successfully used clean technology like solar, wind, and geothermal so that people interested in getting off the grid can learn from each other. Her organization has been encouraging state residents to contact the legislature and the governor to ask that they enforce Senate Bill 1176 to tax Millstone.

Connecticut lawyer, Nancy Burton, watched her lawsuits against the Millstone nuclear plant thrown out one after the other until the state Supreme Court ruled in her favor. It took a decade but Burton - who aims to shut Millstone down - won the right in June, 2009 to legal standing to sue the state of Connecticut for failure to enforce pollution standards under the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act. Burton has pointed out that the Millstone reactors pulverize billions of fish and eggs using the once-through cooling system (see her Gone Fission chapter in our 2001 report, Licensed to Kill). The reactors also pump out radioactive water, damaging to human health.

Background: In 2006, former Attorney Generhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifal Richard Blumenthal, said that while the earnings at most energy companies are about 10 percent, his conservative estimates of earnings at Millstone nuclear plants operated by Dominion Resources Inc., were 44% at one site and 53% percent profit at another. Blumenthal then called for a major tax overhaul that would lower energy rates for consumers and strengthen Connecticut agencies that oversee energy.

Related Links: This article by Snehasis Das notes the rise in cancer plus "an obvious and alarming threat to the lives and livestock of the Khasi tribal region". More deeply troubling news about the uranium mining industry that is expanding rapidly and not well regulated to protect human rights and property or farming rights. National Security or Development? Uranium Mining in Meghalaya by Snehasis Das

Doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish at Central Connecticut State University, I Shall Not Hate,

Talk Nation Radio for April 14, 2011
I Shall Not Hate, A Gaza Doctor's Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity
Doctor Izzeldin Abuelaish at Central Connecticut State University

Lecture in memory of his daughters Bissan, Mayar, and Aya, who died in 2009 during Israel’s invasion and bombardment of Gaza. An Israeli rocket hit the Abuelaish home in Gaza, killing three of the doctor's daughters. His niece, Noor, also died. He discusses his best selling book, “I Shall Not Hate” (Random House). It recounts his medical journey and efforts towards reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. See Globe and Mail review here.

TRT:29:01
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT, Recorded March 15, 2011 in New Britain, CT
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Archive.org and Radio4all.net

Before his audience of students, professors, and community members, Dr. Abuelaish stood tall, sometimes walking a step forward, or back, occasional tears rolling down his face, as he told the heart breaking but inspirational story of his loss, and his commitment. In addition to working as a physician, and peace activist, he memorializes his daughters through a foundation set up to help other Gazan children achieve their dreams for education in health and other fields.



This week's show features a talk that was part of the well established, Middle East Studies Lecture Series, at CCSU, Central Connecticut State University, in New Britain, Connecticut. Their March 15, 2011 event featured a talk by Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish from Gaza.

A Palestinian physician, Dr. Abuelaish trained in Cairo, London and Cambridge, MA (Harvard). He talks about his life and his work of reaching a peaceful solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians with dignity. His conversation is also highly personal, and he speaks about the loss of his wife to cancer, then the horror of losing his children to artillery fire from the Israeli IDF as they bombed Gaza during Operation Cast Lead.

Immediately after their deaths, Dr. Abuelaish spoke on Israeli TV to a shocked audience who watched the tragedy unfold. He was scheduled to be interviewed, but viewers saw first hand the shock and pain he experienced at losing three of his children. In this inspirational talk he discusses the kids, the three girls who died and his remaining daughter and son who have rallied bravely to meet the challenge of life without their siblings. The family has thrown themselves into peace making, and working to help other people's children in Gaza. They have set up a foundation called, Daughters For Life. The web page serves as both a memorial to Dr. Abuelaish's daughters and a foundation site for fundraising for their program that provides university scholarships and scholarships for health and other education programs for young women in the Middle East.

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish grew up in poverty and has devoted his life to medicine and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. While Israel has confined 1.5 million Gazans into a few square miles, Dr. Abuelaish treats patients on both sides of the border. He is a humanitarian who sees the need for improved health and education for women as the way forward in the Middle East. His response to the killing of his daughters and niece made international news and won him humanitarian awards around the world. Dr. Abuelaish has been interviewed by many media outlets, including CNN with Christiane Amanpour and Anderson Cooper.

His most recent awards have been:

2010: Uncommon Courage Award; Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding; Queens College, NY, and

2010: Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award of Canada

He is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at the School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Co-sponsors for this event include: Center for International Education, Department of Political Science and Peace Studies at CCSU

Nuclear Issues: Fukushima, Connecticut, and Beyond

We again guest produce Pacifica's Sprouts, a Weekly show produced by network affiliate station members and independent producers.

This Week on Sprouts:
Nuclear Issues: Fukushima, Connecticut, and Beyond
Beyond Nuclear, Japan's Fukushima Daiichi and Connecticut's Millstone Bill




Produced by Dori Smith of Talk Nation Radio, Storrs, Connecticut

Left KU Channel
Thursday, April 14, 2011, 3PM EST
Total time 29:00 minutes
Download as broadcast quality .mp3 after Wednesday at 2PM EST:
http://www.audioport.org

Direct link here Or search Sprouts.

We speak with Youki Mikami and Tony Boys in Japan, and ask them what its like living in proximity to the leaking Fukushima Daichi plant. The two are becoming increasingly active in the growing anti nuclear movement in post Fukushima melt down Japan. After reading about his own country in reports written in America, Tony Boys became active with the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center. [See Earth Beat radio page for more on the man whose reports he was finding, Arnie Gundersen here.] A food and energy researcher, he blogs at (We) Can Do Better We asked him to describe the climate in Japan where more than 17,500 thousand people turned out for protests against nuclear power in Tokyo.

An independent documentary film maker, Youki Mikami says working with non-governmental organizations interested in the environment has led him to believe in the power of citizen’s movements. He has recently been on location East of Russia to film a nearly extinct tiger in the Primeordeal forest. He too reached out to Americans online, talking with staff at the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center and other organizations. His environmental consciousness he says, was raised on March 11th, and he is now angry over the lack of accurate information about the radiation leaking from Fukushima plant.

Then Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear, in Maryland, joins us to talk about a new battle shaping up over America's aging nuclear power plants including Millstone in Connecticut over Senate Bill 1176, a tax increase on instate energy. The bill would charge Dominion 2 cents per kilowatt hour more for nuclear power provided by Connecticut's Millstone reactor as a tax. The amount is based on estimates of Millstone's income. But Dominion is running an expensive PR campaign to fight the new tax. They took out newspaper ads, held a town meeting to complain about the tax, called customers, and donated to NPR, so that NPR news casts about the nuclear industry in the US, aging plants here, or Fukushima disaster, end with their thanking Dominion, which operates Millstone power plant, employing more than 1,000 people in Waterford, Connecticut.

It's become a fight over jobs rather than safety, and Connecticut's corporate press has not been mentioning the human errors that led to several expensive accidents at Millstone during 1977 through 1999. Company spokesman Ken Holt seems unaware of the problems.

Ken Holt is spokesman for Dominion Resources Inc., of Virginia, the company that operates Connecticut's aging Millstone Nuclear Power plant.. We press him on his further threat that if the tax increase goes through, Millstone would lay off workers and operate with fewer staff during shut down. Doesn't this pose a health risk? Are they threatening Connecticut safety? Spokesman for Connecticut's DEP, Dennis Schain explains that the more clean and safe your energy is, the better your tax advantage for operating in Connecticut will be.

This week's Sprouts edition is produced at Talk Nation Radio studios, Storrs, Connecticut
Music by: David Rovics, Minami Sanriku, Song for an orphan, dedicated to people of Japan, and The Radiation Blues, sung by singer/songwriter Courtney Dowe

Sprouts is a weekly program that features local radio production and stories from many radio stations and local media groups around the world. It is produced in collaboration with community radio stations and independent producers across the country. The program is coordinated and distributed by Pacifica Radio and offered free of charge to all radio stations. For information, or if you would like to feature your work on Sprouts, contact Ursula Ruedenberg at ursula@pacifica.org.

Intro: It’s not your father’s Chernobyl, that’s the headline of an article featured at Market Watch April 12th by Lisa Twaronite). The intent was to calm the nerves of investors by claiming things are not so bad. But scientists around the globe were insisting that Japan raise the threat level to a category 7, like Chernobyl, weeks ago, as they studied the reports on radiation fallout from Japan. There is now potentially more of a threat due to bio-accumulation, bio-magnification, and the fact that the radioactive isotopes pouring into the ocean near Japan are water soluble. We will be hearing more about this from Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear in further broadcasts.

A Geiger counter at a dairy farm featured in a Reuters Report April 13th, showed radioactive particles arriving at a level of 0.41 microsieverts per hour. The farm is about 50 Kilometers from the crippled nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture, in northern Japan, Even as we were reading that report, news was arriving of several more earthquakes in the same region, one of them registering 5.8 around East Fukushima. Another 5.0 aftershock in Ibaraki, and a 3.0 in Tokyo.

The Japanese government continues to say there is nothing to worry about, they claim the plant has stabilized, but Tony Boys, who lives about 120 kilometers south of the leaking plant, says he has not been kept informed about the threat.

Even as we were contacting Tony Boys for an interview April 12th there was even more serious quake activity near the damaged Fukushima plant, and near his home. On the one month anniversary of the major quake, thousands of protesters turned out in Tokyo, and then faced another major quake and another tsunami warning which fortunately did not materialize. But on the following day, quake activity caused landslides and some deaths, horrifyingly, much of the serious activity was in Fukushima prefecture, within 30 kilometers of the nuclear plant.

On NHK TV a government health official was filmed eating a piece of fruit grown near the damaged reactor. But Tokyo Electric Power, TEPCO, has also just admitted that they are still working on a blueprint to stop the radiation leak and cool the reactors and fuel rod storage pools. When earthquakes have not been occurring, they have been able to keep on injecting nitrogen into the plant to try to prevent more hydrogen explosions. Pressure levels are not rising as much as they feared, which is both good and bad. Bad because it suggests continued leaking, good as more damage might be staved off.

Even so, these same officials have also told the world that the leak represents just one tenth of the radiation leaked at Chernobyl, or 1 percent of the total radiation contained at the plant site. Just last week there was news of radiation levels up to ten million times the so-called safe limits in seawater off Japan’s coast near the plant.
After reading about his own country in reports written in America, Tony Boys became active with the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center. A food and energy researcher, he blogs at http://candobetter.net/blog/89
We asked him to describe the climate in Japan where more than 17 thousand people turned out for protests against nuclear power. Tony Boys says he may leave his home with his family or not depending on what happens next, and what he hears from media reports.

Mazin Qumsiyeh on Popular Resistance in Palestine

Talk Nation Radio for April 7, 2011
Mazin Qumsiyeh on Popular Resistance in Palestine
US Media Overlooks Peaceful Palestinian Protest Movement amid so-called Arab Spring

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in Palestine. This week's show is a recording of his talk delivered at the University of Connecticut March 23rd at UCONN, Storrs, CT COOP, bookstore.



TRT: 29:13
Produced by, Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

Professor Mazin B. Qumsiyeh visited his Alma mater, the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, CT, as one stop on his US book tour with his latest work, Popular Resistance in Palestine, A History of Hope and Empowerment. (Available here)He studied as an undergraduate at the UCONN campus and was well received there. There is also a tape with audience questions available for interested broadcast outlets.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Professor Mazin B. Qumsiyeh serves as chairman of the board of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People and coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Sahour. He described his personal history of activism and also that of his ancestors in Palestine. Dr. Qumsiyeh is also author of, Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle. (Still available here) He was arrested in March of 2011 for protesting the Israeli occupation, the separation wall, new illegal settlement building by Israel, and ongoing repression of Palestinians. He described his commitment to non-violence as founded in the principles of Mahatma Gandhi.

Despite the so called Arab Spring in the Middle East and North Africa, Palestinian activists working non violently for their democratic rights have gotten little or no media coverage in American corporate press outlets.

Palestinians have in fact a very long history of non-violent protest, and had Professor Qumsiyeh been an activist working for peace and democratic rights in Tripoli, Libya, rather than Jerusalem, Palestine, his name might be more widely recognized in America. Had he been active in working to fight repression in Egypt, Yemen, Syria, or even China, Prof. Qumsiyeh's work might be under discussion at major US universities. He nevertheless continues to tell the history of Israel, Palestine, the US and UK, to all who are willing to listen.

Ignoring the Threats from the Right while Spying on the Peaceful Left, FBI Surveillance 1960s style, David Holthouse, Maureen Murphy

Talk Nation Radio for March 31, 2011
FBI Surveillance 1960s style, David Holthouse, Maureen Murphy
Ignoring the Threats from the Right while Spying on the Peaceful Left



TRT:29:00 (26.6 M)
Produced by, Dori Smith in Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica’s Audioport here
And at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

Human rights activists, peace activists and environmentalists, hoped for change under Obama/Biden but the same kind of targeted surveillance campaigns and invasive FBI tactics appear to be surfacing under the present administration that were a problem under the Bush/Cheney administration. They are being mentioned in the same breath as the KKK by the chair of a Congressional Committee on Homeland Security, and the media appears willing to help the government by downplaying the threat from the right and accepting the policy of surveillance against the left without just cause. The tactics date back to the 1960s when anti war activists were subjected to COINTELPRO operations, FBI surveillance and pressure from grand juries. Are progressives, leftists, even moderates, being targeted while dangerous right wing activists are not?

There are events planned for April to protest wars at home and abroad and you can learn more at UNACPEACE.org.

We speak with investigative journalist David Holthouseabout his piece, Lone Wolves: A Recent History of Violent Right-Wing Extremism. It was featured on the Media Matters web page. We speak with him about the piece in the context of Congressional hearings called by Representative King, chair of the Homeland Security Committee in the House. Even as King hearings put pressure on Muslims and others in a broad set of rhetorical charges, there has been a big increase recently of militancy on the right. We look at real versus politically expedient to talk about threats to America.

Then, Maureen Murphy, joins us. She is the managing editor at the news outlet, Electronic Intifada. Maureen Murphy is one of 23 activists in Chicago and Minneapolis to be targeted by the FBI for their Palestine solidarity activism. The original subpoenas were issued in September but when the activists including Maureen Murphy refused to provide any information to the FBI they were called before a grand jury. She discusses the threat to activists posed by the pressure to "talk" about other activists including some who live in countries where they might be at risk of being harmed.

Maureen Murphy also worked with the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq in Ramallah until she was unceremoniously deported by Israel in late May 2006. While in the occupied West Bank, Murphy investigated issues relevant to Palestinian culture, and in addition to the Electronic Intifada, her writing has been published by the Daily Star, Palestine Report, and her former stomping ground of F News magazine. She has also spent time living in Lebanon. Murphy graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BA in Visual and Critical Studies in 2004.

Also, we hear clips of House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King, who groups people together as “threats” and claimed Muslim Americans ought to work more with the FBI to inform on fellow Muslims who might be a threat, activists that have been working against political profiling, racism, and Anti Muslim activities, began to speak out. We hear a short audio montage of King’s original remarks that was aired by NPR and sounds from a group of anti-Muslim protesters outside hearing room who screamed at families as they walked in to testify before Congress.

Richard Gage visits Hartford, Mazin Qumsiyeh visits Storrs, Connecticut

Talk Nation Radio for March 24, 301
Richard Gage visits Hartford, Mazin Qumsiyeh visits Storrs, Connecticut
Produced by John Schwenk, Host Dori Smith
TRT:29:20
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here Or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org



First, engineer John Schwenk interviews architect Richard Gage about an upcoming event at the University of Hartford on March 26th, asking what really happened to Building 7.

Then Mazin Qumsiyeh answers Dori Smith's question about the US role in Libya. He comments on the hypocrisy of the US role given violence against civilians in other countries where the US is not working to prevent it such as Bahrain.

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh spoke at the University of Connecticut's COOP Bookstore March 23, 2011 where he read from his new book, Popular Resistance in Palestine, A History of Hope and Empowerment. It was called” remarkable and brilliant” by Nur Masalha. Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He serves as chairman of the board of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People and coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Sahour. See book promo here at AJE.

The upcoming event at the University of Hartford will feature Bob McIlvaine and Manny Badillo, who lost family members on 9/11; New York University Professor Mark Crispin Miller, Professor Graeme MacQueen, Attorney William Pepper, journalist Leslie Griffin, author Dick Russell, mechanical engineer Tony Szamboti, and Underwriters Laboratories Whistleblower Kevin Ryan, and it runs all day Saturday at the University of Hartford's Millard Auditorium, in Hartford, Connecticut, John Schwenk mentions event in his interview with Richard Gage, to be held on March 26th from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. The program will kick off a new Internet and TV awareness campaign calling for a fresh investigation into what happened to Building 7, which was not hit by a plane on 9/11 but came down anyway. Sponsored by WWUH Radio 91.3 FM and BuildingWhat.org

www.InvestigateBuilding7.org

Michael Mariotte, Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service Special series, Japan goes Critical, part 3

Talk Nation Radio for afternoon of March 15, 2011
Michael Mariotte, Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Special series, Japan goes Critical, part 3, audio below

UPDATES: 3/31 Japanese officials appear to have lost fight to "save" the Fukushima plant from full core meltdown according to one of the scientists involved in manufacturing it. See the Guardian here .

UPDATES: 3.31 Radiation found in milk in California where much of nation's dairy products come from and also Washington State, also farm country, especially for fruits, vegetables, and grain products. The particles include radioactive iodine 131. One can learn about preventative measures here as pdf file, and here. Media coverage tends to emphasize the "miniscule" amounts involved, yet radiation levels could rise as emissions from the plant continue daily. Fears have been growing in Japan where the plant continues to spew radiation and radioactive particles have been detected in water sources and in the soil in towns outside of the official exclusion zone. On Friday workers were not allowed to enter the plant as the nation's supply of radiation badges had been depleted according to NHK, Japanese Television Network airing on PBS in America. The plant seems to have continued to go critical according to scientists. See The Real News here. Japanese officials and the plant operators and owners at TEPCO are being encouraged to widen the evacuation zone as levels of radiation continue to rise. The NOVA episode for March 22, 2011, shows previously unseen footage of the Fukushima plant and the Tsunami that hit after the largest ever recorded earthquake in Japan March 11th. An estimated 28,000 people remain missing.

UPDATES Radioactive Iodine Releases from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Reactors May Exceed Those of Three Mile Island by Over 100,000 Times. IEER Press Release (March 25, 2011) PDF "While Chernobyl had one source of radioactivity, its reactor, there are seven leaking radiation sources at the Japanese site. Together, the three damaged reactors and four spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi contain far more long-lived radioactivity, notably cesium-137, than the Chernobyl reactor".

Update: 3-25 News gets more clear about breach of core reactor at Plant 3. Here is NIRS update first. 11:00 am, Friday, March 25, 2011. Greenpeace Germany has released a statement that, according to an analysis of radiation releases by consultant Dr. Helmut Hirsch, Fukushima is now a Level 7 accident on the international scale (currently it is officially ranked as a Level 5, comparable to the Three Mile Island accident of 1979; Level 7 would make it comparable to Chernobyl). More here

Now NYT story 3-24

March 21, 2011, NIRS UPDATE, Noon, Monday, March 21, 2011 Radiation doses at Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini, March 18-21, 2011. Obtained by Dr. Chris Busby at European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECCR). ECCR risk model predicts 120,000 cancers worldwide from Fukushima accident based on current known release

March 21, 2011: Dark smoke at plant 3 sent workers running. Evacuation followed, and radiation levels found to be higher than previously recorded in areas of Japan that were said to be javascript:void(0)safe. Al Jazeera English live blog update here See this dynamic debate on The Real News on nuclear energy featuring Daphne Wysham.

March 19, 201: Japanese fire fighters have been dousing the plant with water. Power has been restored to 5 and 6 plants, but 3 and 4 remain a problem.

March 17, 2011 NIRS update: PDF on Protective Measures from Radioactivity in North America here http://nirs.org/reactorwatch/accidents/protectivemeasuresfromradioactivity.pdf

The NIRS Alert Page here
UPDATE, 6:15 pm (note: all Update times are Eastern U.S. time), Tuesday, March 15, 2011. We have just learned that TEPCO has announced that at 5:45 am Tokyo time (4:45 pm eastern us time) flames have appeared again at the northwest side of Fukushima Daiichi (Unit 4). According to TEPCO, it is impossible to go near the fire since the radiation is so high.

Update: SYDNEY (MarketWatch) -- "Another fire broke out at the No. 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Wednesday, according to reports, citing Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco. The latest fire follows three explosions and one fire at the nuclear complex since last Friday, when a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the country. A fire on Tuesday at the No. 4 reactor was reportedly the cause of a spike in radiation levels around the plant." We will hear about the meltdown and core involvement at plant 2.

Cooling at plants still not achieved. Radiation threat high. Japanese officials having trouble with stabilizing population that has been devastated by the earthquakes and Tsunami. Another quake occurred Tuesday morning in the Tokyo region even as they were discovering some levels of radiation there. These levels have not been high, however, radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has been very high.


TRT: 28:50 music fades long, 0:27 seconds
Produced by Dori Smith and John Schwenk, Storrs, CT and Syndicated with Pacifica Network
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org.

Covered in this interview:
-The latest on the nuclear plants in Japan, where things stand, what are the possibilities for best case versus worst case scenarios.
-Global impacts from Japan nuclear power plant meltdown at core
-Use of Potassium Iodine and Availability in North America in the event the Radioactive Plume makes it across the ocean to America?
-Exposure at reactor core, Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant no. 2, involvement of three or four plants.
-Potential for nuclear chain reactions.

Throughout Monday night in Japan, more risk of radioactive contamination. We’re joined by Michael Mariotte, Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. He is based in the US but he is in touch with colleagues in Japan and other parts of the world as they continually assess the risk posed by the meltdown at the Japanese nuclear plants. We’re going to be talking about the core involvement after one core was exposed.
You can go to the web site www.NIRS.org for updates and information including a map provided by NOAA showing the direction of any radioactive plume. It is expected that at least some radiation will be affecting other countries, potentially America’s West Coast residents this week some time and NIRS and other agencies will be watching the clock and you should consult them for more specific information if you live on the West coast.
“I think it is time for the US Government to have adequate nuclear monitoring capability so we will know if those plumes make it to America”.
Michael Mariotte has also criticized the US for not making it more clear that Potassium Iodine has been stored and would be made available to residents who are at risk of contamination from across the ocean in Japan.
Seismic activity has continued to impact the already devastated country of Japan. OnTuesday Morning March 15, 2011, there radiation was detected in Tokyo. Not long after that information was made public, there was news of another magnitude six earthquake near Tokyo. No reports of casualties or damage at this time.
At the Fukushima plant contamination, fire, and radioactive releases. We asked Michael Mariotte to discuss what he knows.
Michael Mariotte, Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service nirs.org

Dr. Arjun Makhijani on Japan Nuclear Crisis, Anatomy of Meltdown

Talk Nation Radio special, Japan goes Critical Continued
Dr. Arjun Makhijani on Anatomy of a Meltdown in Japan
We hear expert scientific analysis of the ongoing Fukushima Nuclear power plant crisis.

Special to Talk Nation Radio, Japan Goes Critical part 2 Scroll to bottom for immediate update on exposed core from plant 3 explosion and crisis, can they avert worst case scenario? We are working on more audio from this interview now.

Dr. Arjun Makhijani on Japan Nuclear Crisis, Anatomy of
Listen to the broadcast below and then scroll down the page as we post updates to this page above the active links. Please suggest that your local radio stations either air this broadcast or contact Prof. Makhijani for further information and updates on the dangers from radioactivity at the Japanese nuclear plants. Arjun Makhijani is present of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. He has a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, where he specialized in nuclear fusion. (Listen to part one of this series here, Michael Mariotte, Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Japan Goes Critical, Is it a Meltdown? What to do? What should we know?)

TRT: 29:17
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or and at Radio4all.net and Archive.org



Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, and an engineer specializing in nuclear fusion. Arjun Makhijani is author of a study on energy conservation potential in the US economy. He is co author of the book, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy, where he discusses a US economy based on renewable energy without fossil fuels or nuclear power, and principle editor and author of Nuclear Wastelands, and Mending the Ozone Hole published by MIT Press. Arjun Makhijani: 301-270-5500 (office) or 301-509-6843 (cell) Tell stations to look for his information online at Post-Tsunami Situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan: Facts, Analysis, and Some Potential Outcomes

URGENT, PLEASE SHARE: Arjun Makhijani suggests America learn an immediate lesson from events in Japan. At all US nuclear sites, the storage polls should be moved. See below:Dr. Makhijani has called on Japanese authorities to tell the world if the spent fuel pool structure is intact at unit 1 OF THE Fukushima power plant. “While Japanese authorities have stated that the reactor vessel is still intact, there has been no word regarding the status of the spent fuel pool structure, except indirectly (see below) Is it still intact? This is a critical question as to the range of potential consequences of the reactor accident.”

Update from Dr. Makhijani from early Mon. 3-14-2011: Post-Tsunami Situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan: Facts, Analysis, and Some Potential Outcomes: Unit 3, which also appears to have had similar problems as Unit 1, whose fuel includes mixed plutonium oxide uranium oxide fuel (“MOX fuel”) first went critical in 1976. Both reactors are of the Mark 1 Boiling Water Design. They do not have the sturdy secondary containment buildings of concrete that is several feet thick typical of later reactor designs. (March 14, 6:30 a.m. note: Unit 3 has also experienced an explosion and Unit 2 appears to have lost cooling. The problems described here would likely apply to Unit 3; Unit 2 may be headed to similar problems.)

Updating concerns about the containment pool that were expressed in this broadcast, On 3-14-2011 he writes: An explosion associated with Unit 1 occurred on March 12, at 3:36 p.m. (TEPCO press release, March 13, 2011 of 9pm Japan time.) At first the authorities stated that this was in the turbine building next to the reactor building. However, it is the reactor building rook and part of the walls near the roof that were completely blown off leaving only a steel skeleton at the top of the building. This indicates an explosion inside the reactor building – probably a hydrogen explosion, since hydrogen is much lighter than air, it would accumulate near the top of the building. The explosion therefore seems to have occurred near the level where the spent fuel pool would be located in a Mark 1 reactor.

3-13-2011: 1:30 PM: Dr. Arjun Makhijani updates his concerns: “I am very concerned about the damage that the explosion did to the spent fuel pool where all of this highly radioactive used fuel is stored. And if that is uncovered and if there is steam around that, that can also generate hydrogen and that can in extreme circumstances also catch fire. So it’s not clear to me that the radioactivity after the explosion was coming only from the reactor. I think it may have been coming from the spent fuel pool, and or, from the reactor. But because we can’t inspect the insides now it’s really impossible to tell and whether the spent fuel pool has been damaged, and whether there are cracks in the reactor, although the vessel is more or less intact, it’s very hard to tell”.

URGENT PLEASE SHARE WIDELY: The United States should move as much spent fuel out of the pools as possible into hardened and secure dry storage. The tragedy in Japan is also a reminder that making plutonium and fission products just to boil water
(which is what a nuclear reactor does) is not a prudent approach to electricity generation. While existing reactors will be needed to maintain the stability of electricity supply for some time (as is also evident from the earthquake-tsunami catastrophe in Japan), new reactor projects should be halted and existing reactors should be phased out along with coal and oil. It is possible to do so economically in the next few decades, while maintaining the reliability of the electricity system and greatly improving its security, as I have shown in my book Carbon-Free and Nuclear Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy published in 2007, and in subsequent work that can be found on the IEER website, www.ieer.org. Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free can be downloaded free here.


Al Jazeera English, 3-1 14 Mar 2011 10:50 GMT Asia-Pacific

IAEA launches facebook page here

Workers have been scrambling to cool three reactors and there have been reports that one or more was semi critical or under going meltdown at various times during the weekend. A high alert is in place still for plants 1 and 3 but plant 2 is said to now be more stable. Workers are trying to find the source of radioactivity being detected there however, and Japanese are officials calling the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear plant instability, the worst crisis for Japan since WWII. We hear about the configurations of the plants, the kind of radioactivity they have, i.e., specifics of Plutonium and the dangers to people of Japan and other countries. Expect part two of this interview shortly. Photo from Reuters, picked up by AJE 3-12-2011)

Core exposed, www.nirs.org FACT SHEET ON FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
UPDATE 2:30 pm, Sunday, March 13, 2011. Tokyo Electric Power is reporting that some six feet of the core of Unit-3 remains uncovered and has been for some time despite efforts to pump water into the core. Tepco speculates there may be leaking pipes and water is not remaining in the core. A translation of part of the statement from our Japanese colleagues: "The fuel's integrity has been considerably compromised. We are assessing a considerably serious situation." UPDATE, 1 pm, Sunday, March 13, 2011. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that a first-level (lowest-level) emergency has been declared at the three-unit Onagawa nuclear station north of Fukushima. Immediately after Friday’s earthquake a fire broke out at this facility, but it was said to have been extinguished fairly quickly. However, on Saturday, elevated radiation levels were measured at the Onagawa site (about 10 microSievert/hour or about 1 millirem/hour) for a few
hours. The emergency was declared due to these elevated levels, but utility officials say the reactors there are under control.

Japan Goes Critical, Michael Mariotte of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service on What we Should Know

Talk Nation Radio for March 12, 2011

Michael Mariotte, Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service

Japan Goes Critical, Is it a Meltdown? What to do? What should we know?

Sun. 3/13/11 Japan warning of second plant explosion could be imminent. Lost cooling at plant 3. BBC feed, "There's a failure of the valve at the No 3 reactor at Fukushima 1 power station. Not clear if this is cause of effect of the fact that gauge isn't showing rising water level".

Continue to monitor events at www.nirs.org

7:00 through 8:00 PM EST CNN Headlines were. Meltdown Underway, then Meltdown Possible, then Officials tell IAEA the Core is Intact, What is really happening with Japanese Nuclear Reactor Cores? Clearly the information has not been adequate to international news and reporting services. We're doing our best to give you a sense of what is going on.



Produced by Dori Smith
TRT:29:09
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here and at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

We speak with Michael Mariotte of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, NIRS about headline news on Japan's nuclear facilities that have begun to go critical. Japanese emergency workers at the plants have not been able to get the plants cooled despite applying sea water. From the NIRS site:FACT SHEET ON FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR POWER PLANT PDF file

UPDATE, 5:30 pm, Saturday, March 12, 2011. Reuters reporting that Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 has lost cooling capability: This is of particular concern since, unlike all of the other reactors in trouble, Unit 3 has been using plutonium-based MOX (mixed oxide) fuel since September 10, 2010. Consequences of an accident at a MOX-powered reactor would be even more severe than at a more typical uranium-powered reactor.

UPDATE, 3:25 pm, Saturday, March 12, 2011. The International Atomic Energy Agency reports
that a total of 140,000 people have now been evacuated from zones 20 kilometers around Fukushima Daiichi and 10 kilometers around Fukushima Daini. The IAEA says that evacuation has not been completed.

Dahr Jamail, Uprisings and Oil in the Middle East

Talk Nation Radio for the week of March 2, 2011
Dahr Jamail, Uprisings and Oil in the Middle East

Plus his reporting on climate change, (the Number One Issue,) BP's disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and coverage from El Salvador for Al Jazeera English. See video interview here

Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Radio4all.net and Archive.org

3-09-2011 HEADLINE UPDATE: Reading from Al Jazeera's live blog we update headlines from their correspondents. Moammar Gadhafi continues to try to recapture Ras Lanuf which has been in the hands of rebels trying to oust Gadhafi. Gadhafi's warplanes have bombed the As Sidr oil facility in Ras Lanuf, setting it on fire. No word yet on any casualties. Gadhafi is now claiming that a no-fly zone might unite Libyans behind him. Gadhafi telling Turkish TV that the real goal of a no fly zone would be seizing oil fields.

Updated version here:




International journalist Dahr Jamail joins us to talk about the uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa. We talk about Libya, as neocons like former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Senator John McCain urge the White House to take military action there. Two US Naval vessels with 1,300 Marines on board has docked at a US base on Crete as Greek Communist Party members rally against the arrival of US forces according to AP.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said Moammar Gadhafi should step down. The US has considered a role in enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya. The U.S. has also sent warships through Egypt's Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea headed toward Libya. US Military leaders have said a no fly zone would require bombing of LIbya's anti aircraft installations.

In the meantime world financial markets are still reeling over protests in Libya that have resulted in a sharp increase in oil prices. Also, revelations continue about now embarrassing ties formed between Gadhafi and representatives of BP, Exxon, Carlyle Group, and other companies plus the London School of Economics. In June of 2010, the Libyan government backed a London hedge fund, according to The Independent, (Stephen Foley, Associate Business Editor).

Dahr Jamail writes for Al Jazeera English and Inter Press Service News. He has been reporting on the adverse health affects for those living near the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and organizing that has been going on in El Salvador where women are leading the way. His web page is http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com

Dahr Jamail is author of Beyond the Green Zone, Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq and The Will to Resist, Soldiers who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. During 2003 and 2004 as he covered the Iraq war as an unembedded journalist, Dahr Jamail heard many Iraqis complain about the lack of jobs, electricity, and clean drinking water in post occupation Iraq. Protesters in Iraq today have the same complaints.